Predictive Value of Ultrasound Characteristics for Disease-Free Survival in Breast Cancer

The main objective of this study was to determine the predictive value of US characteristics for disease-free survival (DFS) in BC patients. We retrospectively analyzed the ultrasonic images and clinical data of BC patients who had previously undergone breast surgery at least 10 years before study enrollment and divided them into a case group and a control group according to the cutoff value of 120 months for DFS. Correlation analysis was performed to identify US characteristics as independent predictors for DFS by multivariable logistic regression and Kaplan−Meier survival analysis. A total of 374 patients were collected, including 174 patients in the case group with short-DFS and 200 patients in the control group with long-DFS. Three US characteristics (size on US, mass shape, mass growth orientation) and two clinical factors (axillary lymph node (ALN), molecular subtypes) were identified as independent predictors for DFS (p < 0.05). The ROC curve showed good performance of the multivariate linear regression model with the area under the curve being 0.777. The US characteristics of large size, irregular shape, and nonparallel orientation were significantly associated with short-DFS, which is a promising supplementary for clinicians to optimize clinical decisions and improve prognosis in BC patients.